Policy-makers expect equity crowdfunding to democratize entrepreneurial finance, by providing access to funding to underrepresented groups of potential entrepreneurs. This paper investigates whether gender, age, ethnicity, and geography affect the choice of equity crowdfunding offerings vs...

This paper investigates whether gender, age, ethnicity, and geography affect the choice of equity crowdfunding offerings vs initial public offerings (IPO) on traditional stock markets and whether these characteristics increase the likelihood of a successful offering. Using 167 equity offerings...

We conjecture that marketplace lending provokes an increase in the quantity of entrepreneurship, particularly in more regionally disadvantaged areas, albeit at lower average quality. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design that exploits exogenous variation in borrowers’ access to...